Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) Short Interest Up 16.9% in January

Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,460,000 shares, a growth of 16.9% from the January 15th total of 4,670,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,600,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.1 days. Approximately 0.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Accenture Price Performance

NYSE:ACN traded up $2.94 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $390.50. The stock had a trading volume of 911,605 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,693,087. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.47 and a current ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $244.37 billion, a PE ratio of 32.74, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 1.24. Accenture has a 52 week low of $278.69 and a 52 week high of $398.35. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $366.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $355.32.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, December 19th. The information technology services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.43 by $0.16. Accenture had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 26.91%. The business had revenue of $17.69 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.15 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.27 earnings per share. Accenture's quarterly revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Accenture will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Angie Y. Park sold 685 shares of Accenture stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $354.38, for a total value of $242,750.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 8,674 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,073,892.12. The trade was a 7.32 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,280 shares of company stock worth $8,316,190. 0.02% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Accenture

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ACN. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Accenture by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 60,394,657 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $21,246,236,000 after buying an additional 392,183 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Accenture by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 27,400,836 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $9,685,648,000 after acquiring an additional 471,792 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,528,348 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,750,021,000 after acquiring an additional 136,665 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its holdings in Accenture by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 12,295,748 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $4,325,526,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770,024 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Accenture by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,175,518 shares of the information technology services provider's stock worth $4,283,225,000 after purchasing an additional 2,260,740 shares during the period. 75.14% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on ACN shares. BNP Paribas cut shares of Accenture from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $375.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Accenture from $390.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on Accenture from $385.00 to $355.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Accenture from $335.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Accenture from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $387.22.

About Accenture

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.